To spur action, the per­cep­tion of dis­card­ed plas­tics must change from bur­den­some waste to a phys­i­cal store of non-renew­able resources. Major invest­ment in devel­op­ing cat­a­lysts, process­es, and infra­struc­ture for ener­get­i­cal­ly effi­cient chem­i­cal recy­cling is crit­i­cal. It is time for gov­ern­ments to com­mit to “min­ing” plastics.